Luminous Wisdom

Sexuality & Spirituality

I think I am not unusual to have grown up with a deeply entrenched split between body and spirituality. In our culture this division is expressed as the split between matter and spirit, or, more specifically, between the body’s sexuality and spirituality. It is worth considering whether this is the predisposition of all established religions, or predominantly that of the Judeo-Christian cultures of the West.

While living in the East in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds, it became apparent that within Eastern religions there are two distinct schools. One sees the relationship to the body and matter ideologically as the foundation of suffering and confusion; the other views the body and the elemental energies in nature as fundamental to the vitality of our spiritual life.

These two views exemplify the difference between the exoteric and the esoteric traditions.

Throughout the history of Eastern religions there have been cultural periods of Puritanism that saw the body as something to be overcome, interspersed with times of renaissance when the teachings of yogic practices flourished, focusing upon the vital energy of sexuality and eroticism.

The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece

The Reality of Our Existance

The reality of our existence is that we are a combination of body and mind. Each of these in turn is a combination of many parts, all constantly in a state of flux. Unfortunately, our ego is not satisfied with such a simple explanation. It complicates matters by fabricating a view of an ‘I’ or self based on our conceptions like and dislikes. We think, ‘I’m attractive,’ ‘I’m ugly,’ ‘I’m a good dancer,’ ‘I won’t succeed,’ ‘I have a bad temper.’ We believe these projections and assume they are permanent and unchanging.

How to Meditate – A Practical Guide, Kathleen McDonald

Eyes Wide Open

Human beings have such an attraction to complexity. We seem to think that if it’s so difficult just to earn the money for a square meal, enlightenment must be very difficult, mysterious, and complicated indeed. It doesn’t occur to our commonsense mind to actually see where these teachings are leading. We have to enter the spiritual path with our eyes wide open. For the ultimate point of view and from the very beginning, we’re talking about attaining enlightenment, which is very simply the innate nature of all sentient beings.

This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment, Khandro Rinpoche

Tibet

Tibet has been called the most religious country in the world. I cannot judge if that is so or not, but certainly all normal Tibetans regarded spiritual matters as no less important than material matters, and the most remarkable thing about Tibet was the enormous number of monasteries in it. There are no exact figures, but probably ten per cent of the total population were monks or nuns. This gave a dual nature to the whole of our social system. In fact, it was only in my position as Dalai Lama that lay and monastic authority was combined. I had two prime ministers, one a monk and one a layman, and below them most others offices were duplicated.

My Land and My People; Memoirs of HH the Dalai Lama of Tibet, HH the Dalai Lama

We are the same!

Again I must emphasize that we are the same! Some of you may have the impression that the Dalai Lama is somehow different. That is absolutely wrong. I am a human being like all of you. We have the same potential.

An Open Heart; Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life, HH the Dalai Lama

Stupa

On what we may call the level of archetypes, a stupa incorporates five basic geometric shapes corresponding to the five elements- earth, water, fire, air and space – out of which the world and all the atoms within it are composed.

Images of Enlightenment – Tibetan Art in Practice, Jonathon Landaw & Andy Weber

Deviating From the Buddha-Mind Part II

If we have failed to please our spiritual teacher, on account of the feebleness of our effort,
If we have failed to be well regarded by our spiritual brothers and sisters, on account of the feebleness of our devotion,
If we have divulged the oral teachings to another, on account of our flirtatious intentions,
Indeed, whatever extravagances, omissions, deviations or mistakes we have made,
With respect to the fundamental commitments of buddha-body, speech and mind,
Whilst swayed by the influence of ignorance, either consciously or unconsciously,
We confess all such transgressions in the presence of the Peaceful and Wrathful Conquerors.
We make confession to you, O Compassionate Ones!
We make confessions to the oceanic assembly of the conquerors!
May all [the degenerations] that we now confess be cleansed and purified!
Please grant us the purity of the non-dual truth!
SAMAYA!

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Deviating From the Buddha-Mind Part I

If we have boasted of our high view and yet not understood the meaning of actual reality,
If we have not clearly visualized the meditational deity, owing to our meditations being excessively brief,
Or if we have made an inadequate number of recitations or spoken these defectively,
However we have deviated from the buddha-mind of the oceans of conquerors,
We confess our transgressions in the presence of the Peaceful and Wrathful Conquerors.
We make confession to you, O Compassionate Ones!
We make confession in the presence of the entire assembly of deities of pristine cognition!

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Unsurpassed Enlightenment

May we be sustained in the nucleus of unsurpassed enlightenment!

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Devotion to the Masters

All that I have realized I have realized through devotion to my masters. Increasingly, as I go on teaching, I become aware, humbly and with real awe, of how their blessings are beginning to work through me. I am nothing without their blessing, and if there is anything I feel I can do, it is acting as a bridge between you and them. Again and again, I notice that when I speak of my masters in my teaching, my devotion to them inspires a vision of devotion in those listening; and in those marvelous moments I feel my masters are present, blessing and opening the hearts of my students to the truth.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche

Your Teacher

Just being around a spiritual friend can teach us more than any book. I was rarely alone with Trungpa Rinpoche, but I remember these times vividly, as well as the times I spent with great teachers such as the Sixteenth Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. I learned from everything they did: the way they spoke, ate their food, and related with people. Thus Shantideva says, Never, at the cost of life or limb, forsake your virtuous friend, your teacher.

No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva, Pema Chödrön

Buddha Nature

Whether a being is a tiny bug or a human endowed with the opportunities and conditions to achieve the doctrine, each has his own share of Buddha nature. At present it is obscured by the temporary defilements of desire, hatred, and ignorance, but these are not part of a person’s essential nature; they are accidental and can be removed.
When a person becomes capable of removing these temporary defilements, he will turn into a Buddha in and of himself. He does not have to acquire a Buddha nature because he has always had it.

Tantric Practice in Nying-Ma, Khetsun Sangpo, Translated and Edited by Jeffrey Hopkins

Spiritual Awakening & the Body

From a tantric perspective the intimate relationship between spiritual awakening and the body has always been central, and the body is viewed as a vehicle for the underlying forces that are being cultivated and transformed. For this reason there are specific tantric precepts that specify not harming or abusing the body in order that practice not be hindered. Certain tantras describe how being born into a human body with its elements and energies is the most auspicious birth one can receive. It is said that only with these qualities is it possible to practice Tantra and attain full Buddhahood within one lifetime.

The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece

Visions

When unusual experiences happen, if we are without guidance, we may become discouraged and quit if we feel that the experiences are negative. Even more likely is that we become puffed-up and arrogant if we believe our experiences to be extraordinary.

Someone I know once had a series of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever heard – the kind of visions and realizations for which I’ve been secretly longing for decades. The problem was that in the absence of a close relationship with a qualified teacher, he sincerely believed that he was realized and able to being teaching. He occasionally got himself into some jams. Luckily he straightened himself out through meeting real teachers.

A Beginner’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhism, Bruce Newman

Imagine Your Buddha-Nature

Imagine your buddha-nature – the essential purity of your own awareness – symbolically as a pearl of radiant white light at your heart. And all of that incandescent, radiant white light is of the nature of joy, of loving-kindness that has always been within you. Then, with each in-breath, imagine drawing from this inexhaustible source of light at your heart, as if you were drawing water from a well. With each in-breath imagine drawing out the light from this source, a source that can be so easily obscured while we attend to others things, as our priorities become lost in distractions. With each in-breath imagine drawing this light out, like drawing from a deep well. Then with each out-breath imagine this light of well-being, this light of loving-kindness, suffusing every part of your body, your mind, your spirit. Then think: May I experience genuine happiness and the very source of happiness itself. May I be well and happy.

Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment, B. Alan Wallace

Effortless Activity

Effortless activity [is found] at moments in dance and in sports at the highest levels of performance; when it does, it takes everybody’s breath away. But it also happens in every area of human activity, from painting to car repair to parenting. Years of practice and experience combine on some occasions, giving rise to a new capacity. You let execution unfold beyond technique, beyond exertion, beyond thinking. Action then becomes a pure expression of art, of being, of letting go of all doing – a merging of mind and body in motion. We thrill in watching a superb performance, whether athletic or artistic, because it allows is to participate in the magic of true mastery, to be uplifted, if only briefly, and perhaps to share in the intention that each of is, in our own way, might touch such moments of grace and harmony in the living of our own lives.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Effortless Effort, Doerless Doing

Non-doing has nothing to do with being indolent or passive. Quite the contrary. It takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity. Nor is it easy to make a special time for non-doing and to keep at it in the face of everything in our lives which needs to be done.

But non-doing doesn’t have to be threatening to people who feel they always have to get things done. They might find they get even more ‘done,’ and done better, by practicing non-doing. Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way. Enormous effort can be involved, but it is graceful, knowledgeable, effortless effort, a ‘doerless doing,’ cultivated over a lifetime.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Meditation Means...

We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our minds leaves us very little respite for inner quiet. And we leave precious little room for ourselves anyway just to be, without having to run around doing things all the time. Our actions are all too frequently driven rather than undertaken in awareness, driven by those perfectly ordinary thoughts and impulses that run through the mind like a coursing river, if not a waterfall. We get caught up in the torrent and it winds up submerging our lives as it carries us to places we may not wish to go and may not even realize we are headed for. Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us rather than to tyrannize us. This process doesn’t magically happen by itself. It takes energy. We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment ‘practice’ or ‘meditation practice.’

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Meditation: A way to bring us back to ourselves

There are so many ways to present meditation, and I must have taught on it a thousand times, but each time it is direct and fresh.

Fortunately we live in a time when all over the world many people are becoming familiar with meditation. It is being increasingly accepted as a practice that cuts through and soars above cultural and religious barriers, and enables those who pursue it to establish a direct contact with the truth of their being. It is a practice that at once transcends the dogma of religions and is the essence of religions.

Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity; meditation, on the other hand, is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being, beyond all habitual patterns. Our lives are lived in intense and anxious struggle, in a swirl of speed and aggression, in competing, grasping, possessing, and achieving, forever burdening ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations. Meditation is the exact opposite. To meditate is to make a complete break with how we ‘normally’ operate, for it is a state free of all cares and concerns, in which there is no competition, no desire to possess or grasp at anything, no intense and anxious struggle, and no hunger to achieve: an ambitionless state where there is neither acceptance nor rejection, neither hope nor fear, a state in which we slowly begin to release all those emotions and concepts that have imprisoned us into the space of natural simplicity.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche

Other Names for Mind

As for this apparent and distinct [phenomenon] which is called ‘mind’:

In terms of existence, it has no [inherent] existence whatsoever.

In terms of origination, it is the source of the diverse joys and sorrows of cyclic existence and nirvana,

In terms of [philosophical] opinion, it is subject to opinions in accordance with the eleven vehicles.

In terms of designation, it has an inconceivable number of distinct names:

Some call it ‘the nature of the mind’, the ‘nature of mind itself’,

Some eternalists give it the name ‘self’,

Pious attendants call it ‘selflessness of the individual’,

Cittamātrins call it ‘mind’,

Some call it the ‘Perfection of Discriminative Awareness’,

Some call it the ‘Nucleus of the Sugata’,

Some call it the ‘Great Seal’,

Some call it the ‘Unique Seminal Point’,

Some call it the ‘Expanse of Reality’,

Some call it the ‘Ground-of-all’,

And some call it ‘ordinary [unfabricated consciousness]’.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Understand

O fortunate children, listen to these words!
The term ‘mind’ is commonplace and widely used,
Yet there are those who don’t understand it, those who partially understand it,
And those who have not quite understood its genuine reality.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Mental Stability

Bodhisattvas strive to attain a state of mental balance and equanimity. This is impossible as long as the mind is troubled by passions and desire to engage in harmful activities. Training in ethics serves to calm the mind, to diminish the force of afflictive emotions, and thus provide an important precondition to advanced meditative training, which requires mental stability.

Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, John Powers

The Suffering of Samsara

The first thing the Buddha taught after his enlightenment was the truth of suffering, the cause of which is ignorance. Because of ignorance, we are unable to see the compositeness of our perceptions – all physical and mental forces that come together to create this seemingly solid world. This leads to grasping and the endless cycle of suffering called samsara. Samsara and all its suffering begin when we get caught up in solidifying external appearances instead of remaining on our fundamental ground.

This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment, Khandro Rinpoche

At Peace

Quiet is the mind, quiet the body and speech. Completely freed by genuine knowing, such a being is truly at peace.

Images of Enlightenment – Tibetan Art in Practice, Jonathon Landaw & Andy Weber

Obscured by Ignorance

Since pristine cognition, which is intrinsic awareness, has not arisen within us,

How pitiful is this mind obscured by ignorance,

Which grasps immaterial phenomena as materially substantive!

We confess this transgression within the expanse of natural pristine cognition!

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa